


Strongarming Your Way Into a Wrecker's Spark

by Nitrobot



Series: Inheritance [7]
Category: Transformers: Prime, Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: A LOT of Angst, Gen, Transformer Sparklings, Wheeljack is Father of the Year, Why do I keep hurting myself like this, dad angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6740758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wheeljack doesn't have many friends left alive in the galaxy, but Springer was always too stubborn to die. Fortunate, because Jackie has a big favour to ask of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_"Long time no fragging see, Wheeljack."_

"And just why would I want to see your ugly mug, Springer?" The two mechs' laughter came automatically, an ancient ritual between Wreckers young and old. Springer might have been a commander, just a rank below the king crank Magnus himself, but he'd treated Wheeljack like a friend since the day he had a Wrecker symbol branded on his chest (the popular initiation ritual was getting it done and pouring high grade over the iron while it was still hot). Whether it was because he knew Wheeljack's sire Jackhammer from the days of Sentinel’s rebellion or because he just liked the chaos that followed in his wake, Springer was never further away than a comm and an evening at a bar.

But Wheeljack couldn't spend long catching up over the interstellar static of the light years spaced between them. "Listen, Springer... I gotta favour to ask."

_"It's not to stash another barrel of lunashine, is it? Cause I swear Magnus has a sixth sensor set for high grade despite never even drinking the stuff-"_

"No, no, it's... it's a lot different from that.” Wheeljack chewed on a scar as he thought of how to best to explain the situation. A high-pitched yawn on his left eventually got him speaking. “You remember... that time you said, with the number of femmes I get with I'm bound to knock one of them up sooner or later?"

_"...Oh."_

"Yeah." The awkwardness was at least softened by the gurgles under Wheeljack's left servo, where he had the sparkling’s pod tucked in the safety of his shoulder. 

_"Is it a mech or femme?"_

"Femme,” Wheeljack answered faintly, getting enraptured all over again by his squirming tiny daughter, blue mouth pouting up at him and optics screwed closed. “She's... a beautiful lil' baby girl. Fraggin’ gorgeous. Takes after the mother, obviously.”

If Springer noticed how thick his voice had gone, he didn't mention it. _"She with you right now?"_

Wheeljack forced himself to look back at the command console before his optics started leaking again. He cleared his clogged vocaliser but kept a hand hovering close to the pod. "Yeah, I... I met her carrier just a few breems ago. Let's just say she ain't the kind of femme to have time for raisin' sparklings.” That was a very polite way of putting it; if anyone knew who her carrier was, they would have had a spark attack. Still, Wheeljack always had a thing for bad femmes. He doubted anyone would even be surprised if they knew.

Something tugged on his digit, tiny scrabbling ones pulling it down for the sparkling to nuzzle against, and he had to close his optics to stop coolant flooding his faceplate. “I couldn't just abandon her, Springer, she's... she's part of my own spark. Only a few breems old and she's already my whole world.”

 _"You don't need to explain, Jackie_ ,” Springer said, and such a gentle tone had no right coming out of any Wrecker's vocaliser. _“Pit, if I had a sparkling, I'd spoil that thing rotten."_

Wheeljack smiled, knowing how soft tough old Springer went for sparklings. "I wish I could spoil her... but where I'm goin' ain't no place for sparklings." The whole galaxy was no place for a sparkling, but unfortunately he didn't know any daycares willing to take on a child from a blacklisted species known for tearing apart every planet they landed on.

 _"Where you heading off to?"_ Springer used that tone where he knew someone was about to do something stupid and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop them.

"Some planet called Earth. There's a beacon from Optimus Prime comin' from it. And I heard Bulkhead’s down there. Thought I'd pay a visit.”

_"And what's got you feeling so generous to the Autobots all of a sudden?"_

It was much harder than he was expecting for Wheeljack to answer. "...I dunno, Springer, I... guess I'm finally tired of just wanderin' the stars. I rough up every 'Con I come across but I ain't doin' anything to actually win the war, am I? Guess I just wanna feel useful in my old age… make the universe one I’d wanna raise a kid in.”

Springer was silent for a few nanoklicks, though the sparkling kept chirping to herself. " _You aren't that old, Wheeljack. Pit, you'll outlive me by a mile."_

Wheeljack couldn't help laughing at the thought, the mighty Springer in a grave that was just a middle digit sticking out of the ground. "Don't say that, you'll break Arcee's spark.” Springer snorted a laugh at that, but there was another silence soon after it. “...So you know what I'm askin' of you, right?" Wheeljack asked after a sigh.

 _"Yeah, you want me to raise your kid while you're off trying to take down the closest thing to Unicron in the universe."_ Springer said it flatly, but the commline crackle couldn't hide the doubt he was really feeling.

"You know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't damn important, Springer. And you're the only Wrecker I know who won't go out and get himself killed next decacyle."

There was a huff as Springer must have smiled. _"Well, I got better things to do than die... are you sure I'm the best mech for babysitting, though? What about Kup or Magnus- even he can't frown at a sparkling."_

Wheeljack honestly couldn't tell if he was joking. "Kup would probably have her fillin' his cygars for him, and the words 'Magnus' and 'sparkling' should never be in the same sentence together. I... I guess I just trust you the most, Springer. You've always had my back, even when I was a dumbaft rookie-"

 _"And when you couldn't even tell a thermal cannon from a shotgun barrel,"_ Springer decided to remind him, and Wheeljack might have punched the comm panel if he wasn't worried about making the girl cry. He had to wait for the smug slagger to stop filling the ship with chuckles. _"...Alright, Wheeljack. You know my co-ordinates, just head over and I'll get some stuff together for her.”_ Relief dampened Wheeljack's nodes to the point that he almost missed the next question, _“Hey, has she got a name yet?"_

Wheeljack hadn’t thought much about it since picking her up and drowning in a very alien kind of love. But looking down at her again, tapping a tiny fist against the side of her pod while she nibbled on her other hand, one came to mind. "I'm thinking... Strongarm."

Springer made a sound that he couldn't tell the meaning of without seeing his face. _"Well, you'll scare off any hopeful boyfriends, at least,"_ he chuckled, but it was clear enough he approved. Wheeljack grinned as he prepared the Jackhammer for a light jump.

“I'll be there ASAP, Springer,” he said as the engines thrummed and the instrument panel blinked green. Sensing a shift in the air or maybe just getting restless, Strongarm whirred as if competing with the noise of the engines. “I think little Strongarm's excited to meet you.” 

_"You been telling her bad stories about me already?”_ Springer joked. _“Listen, when you're down on Earth… say hi to Arcee for me, will you?"_

Wheeljack smirked at how hard it was for him to ask. "She still mad at you for thinkin' that crazy Decepticon chick on Quraqua was her?"

Springer’s response was just as pissed as he was hoping. _"I ain't discussing my love life with you in front of your kid, Wheeljack. And for the record, black paint can look blue in certain kinds of light!"_

Wheeljack laughed louder than ever, and even Strongarm seemed to join in. "Fair enough." The comms shut off as the FTL drive activated and the Jackhammer slipped into hyperspace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been meaning to get some backstory together for my ubiquitous “Wheeljack is Strongarm's dad” headcanon, so what I imagine happened is that before he came to Earth Wheeljack fragged a femme, she gave birth to Strongarm and asked him to take care of her. But Jackie was already planning on going to Earth and decided to have good old Springer raise wee baby Strongarm until the war was over.  
> As of now my ultimate weakness is big tough robots being good fathers. Now please excuse me while I go cry in a corner.  
> (Also yay for always keeping Strongarm's mum ambiguous)


	2. Chapter 2

A few klicks later and far too soon in any case, Wheeljack was landing in the bay of Springer's home away from home. It was clean, by Wrecker standards at least, and if Springer managed to keep it hidden from Decepticons this long then it was unlikely anyone would come to whisk Strongarm away from him. 

Speaking of her, the hyperjump seemed to jolt her awake and had her squirming in her pod, her tiny mouth stretching open to voice high-pitched whines. Wheeljack was so absorbed in keeping his grip on her steady, his pace slow to not disturb her, that he almost walked right into Springer on the docking platform. 

“I take back what I said about you still being young, Jackie, you've got worse optics than Alpha Trion,” he said through a dented grin, servos crossed over his scuffed chestplate. 

“I could still kick your aft with them closed,” Wheeljack warned, though the sight of that familiar green armour with all its chips and crooked planes did more to lift his heavy spark than all the high-grade in the universe. For just one nanoklick he managed to forget the reason he was standing in front of him, cradling the only thing he had worth keeping in his life.

“So, this is the new little Wrecker?” Springer leaned down to look closer into Strongarm's pod, and once Wheeljack got over a sudden instinct to shield her he let it hiss open, exposing the gurgling sparkling inside to optics that had never looked a softer shade of blue before.

"Hey, sweetspark… you weren't kidding, she _is_ gorgeous...” How Springer could make his vocaliser so quiet, Wheeljack only knew from his own experience. He dangled a digit over her, feeling her faint vents, and with blind small servos she latched onto the finger to hug it close to her mouth so she could chirp against it. “I think she's hungry,” Springer said after his chuckles faded, while Wheeljack was still trying to accept how something only a few breems old could be so adorable. That was probably the only thing stopping him from tearing her back out of Springer's grip as he cradled her case.

“I’ll keep a picture of you in her pod, so when her optics open you’ll still be the first thing she sees,” he promised, which only made Wheeljack feel all the worse, abandoning his daughter before she even had a chance to imprint on her sire. But if the alternative was letting her tag along on a ship that had Decepticon sights permanently fixed on it, then he'd need to be selfless for once in his life and suck it up. 

That didn't make the lump in his vocaliser any smaller, or the gulch his spark was hanging over any more shallow, but at least he managed to keep his optics clear. “Thanks, Springer. I… I really appreciate this.”

“Don't go soft on me, Wheeljack, any good friend would do the same. Anyway, I think I'm gonna get along just fine with her.” As Springer put another digit in Strongarm seemed to nibble on the tip, like she did to Wheeljack's when he held her for the first time and fell into a chasm of love he'd never climb out of. With that memory slapping him in the face, Wheeljack thought he blacked out for a few moments when Springer suddenly seemed much further away, taking Strongarm away into the safety of his little base perched in nowhere.  
“You wanna come in for a while, Wheeljack?” Springer asked, seemingly surprised that the other mech hadn't been following him. “I got some high-grade stashed away if you want to take some for the trip-”

Wheeljack held up a hand in dismissal, though it was more to hide how hazy his optics were starting to get. “I'd like to, but… I should get goin’. The beacon Optimus sent out is already pretty old, by the time I get to it we might have lost the war. But… can I hold her one last time?” His voice finally cracked in half under the strain of his sadness, though rather than gloating Springer actually looked relieved that the immense emotion was now bleeding through.

“Of course.” He went back to Wheeljack with each step miles away, and when he was finally within distance it took all of Wheeljack's dwindling effort not to snatch his daughter back and make for the stars. He lifted her up with scarred hands, still shocked at how light she was, holding her close to his breaking spark. And she almost seemed to kiss him, a mumble of her mouth against his chest and a muffled sound like a giggle. She didn't know he wouldn't be with her any longer, so Wheeljack spent so long savouring that last moment with her that Springer stepped in with a low offer;

"Listen, Jackie, if you're having second thoughts-"

"I'm just... just tryin' to think of how to say goodbye." Wheeljack closed his optics, heaved a shaky sigh, and tried not to let coolant drip on her as he held her up close to his faceplate.

"Strongarm, I... don't know if you can even hear me, sweetie, but I gotta go away for a while. I know Uncle Springer'll take care of you 'til I get back… I love you, sweetspark. I know I always will. Your mama loved you too... too much to not send you where you'll be better off. I'm... sorry I can't be the dad you deserve right now… “ He took another breath like an earthquake through his systems, but nothing else would come out of his mouth.

"Jackie...?" 

"Take her,” Wheeljack asked, pleaded to Springer. “Before I... before I won't be able to leave."

Springer was slow to obey, and Wheeljack wasn't sure if he was hoping or dreading the chance to take Strongarm back with him. But soon she was leaving his arms, her warmth already cooling, and his spark left in pieces. He was only grateful that Springer didn't turn back as he dragged himself back into the Jackhammer, and Wheeljack only realised he'd said something to him when he was back in the lonely captain’s seat.

“Stay safe, Wheeljack. If not for your sake, then for hers.”

It was achingly similar to what her mother had asked him to promise, and even from behind inches of ship hull he swore he could hear his daughter wailing for him. She couldn't see the Jackhammer fading away, or the infinite edge of the universe stretching out all around her, but she still seemed to sense that she was being left behind, and that sound was what haunted Wheeljack the most all the way to Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some say Nitro is still crying about robot dads to this very day.  
> And they would be correct.


End file.
